The Insincere Night Sky
The Eighty-Sixth chapter of the Elfen Lied manga series. The statement by the deranged Kurama, dismissing his entire relationship with Nana as that of a scientist to his test subject, puts the girl through living hell and seems set to push her over the edge, perhaps even hearing the 'inner voice' that so often drives Lucy. While Kurama continues to hold the corpse of Cynthia believing her to be Mariko, Nana recalls every statement she's ever heard about how she doesn't belong in the world of people, a despair kept back only by the love of her 'Papa'. By the time Mayu and Wanta arrive at the beach shack to check on Nana, no one is inside. In fact, Nana has taken Kurama and Cynthia away to the nearby hills, determined never to give up on him, even if he has given up on her. In the underground lake grotto at the Diclonius Research Institute, Chief Kakuzawa tells the story of his family as he knows it, a story of vast power diminishing until his people were vulnerable and then slaughtered by Humans. He shows Nyu his own horns as she wonders whether or not she is the murderer she's heard people talk and warn about. Kakuzawa continues to speak of the power his clan once wielded, enough to reshape Heaven And Earth, till intermarriage with Humans ruined this. He further claims that the demons of legend were actually his persecuted forebears, ultimately exiled to the very island they now inhabit, where his people prayed for a messiah to restore their original powers. Hiding themselves in the grotto, they endured despite killer levels of radiation, he claims all in preparation for Lucy's coming. Many attempts at breeding this champion were doomed to failure due to mutations and stillbirths caused by the intense radiation in the grotto. Those few that managed to survive started to mutate less and became resitant to radiation as time went on, still plotting final revenge against all Humans while awaiting the coming of one like Lucy, whose 'pure demon' blood would through breeding restore their line and powers. He then casually confirms that Nyu's other personality is a killer of many thousands of people, sickening her and making her want to die, realizing she cannot live with people any longer. Kakuzawa counters that her place is with them, bearing the children of the new Diclonius master race. In the Kamakura hospital, Nousou muses about his feelings for the Mariko clones, and vows to not only do better by the surviving Barbara and Diana, but goes one step further and removes Barbara's control device. He means to test if their affection for him lives outside those controls, and knows he is taking a chance. But his guilt over the treatment of the girls under his care, used and harvested and hurt, will not allow him to do otherwise, and even in that, he comprehends that his debt to them can never be repayed. Barbara, still seemingly docile after having her control device removed, leaves the room and encounters a friendly nurse. Barbara returns to Nousou's room, tosses the nurse's head in Nousou's lap, and declares that for his cruelty and mistreatment of her and other Diclonius, he cannot ever be forgiven. Nousou, understanding and knowing that this outcome was a possibility, manages to say he's sorry right before Barbara beheads him.